The Liberator (newspaper)/September 18, 1857/A Picture of New York Morals

A Picture of New York Morals.

Complaint having been made against one Sarah Sands for keeping a disorderly house in Eleventh street, Justice Wood issued a warrant, and Captain J. W. Hartt, of the seventeenth precinct, with a posse of officers, last night proceeded to arrest the inmates. The house has a spacious yard, decorated with flowers, and presents a fine external appearance. It has long borne the reputation of a house of assignation of the higher order.

The captain entered with his warrant, and made a clear sweep, arresting the keeper and every person on the premises, twenty-one in all. He was not a little surprised to find several members of the church to which he belongs, with whom he has long partaken the sacrament, as well as others whose reputation in the community has heretofore been regarded as irreproachable, among them.

The greatest consternation prevailed when these visitors suddenly found themselves in the hands of the officers of the law. They begged and pleaded with the greatest earnestness to be allowed to escape, offering every imaginable excuse for their presence. One man declared that if he were to be exposed, it would ruin his family and kill his wife, who was in feeble health at home. But the captain was inexorable, and allowed none to escape upon any plea.

There was soon a great fluttering among certain outside parties, who, for some reason known to themselves if not to others, took extraordinary interest in the affair, and used their utmost endeavor to get the parties clear. It is said that a man who figures largely in the affairs of our city, and whose voice is potent in the sacred precincts of Tammany, with one of Mayor Wood’s old police captains, took an active part in the proceedings, and pleaded the cause of the most prominent of the prisoners. It is even said that they went or sent some one after Justice Wood, to open the prison doors.

However this may be, Justice Wood made his appearance about 2 o’clock this morning, and the three or four for whom these men are said to have especially interested themselves were forthwith discharged, and allowed to go home to their families. Others appeared in behalf of unfortunate friends, and the Justice finally discharged all the men before going home, while the keeper and some of the girls were committed for examination.

Captain Hartt, in his return, says: ‘The scene that presented itself, on entering the house, almost beggared description. There were seen girls scarcely out of their teens, and men whose heads are beginning to whiten with the frosts of time, imploring to be saved from exposure for their families’ sake—a sad and melancholy commentary upon the morals of our city. The anguish and confusion of face exhibited by many were sufficient to move the stoutest heart, and formed an impressive lesson of the truth of the saying, “The way of the transgressor is hard.” ’

The parties arrested all gave fictitious names. Several were known to the officers as men of wealth and high social position.—N. Y. Evening Post.